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Saturday, March 5, 2011

Spain sent a second plane to Benghazi

Torrejón de Ardoz (Madrid). .- Spain will begin this afternoon to evacuate refugees from Egypt to the border between Libya and Tunisia in the coming hours send another plane to help the Libyan city of Benghazi, which is controlled by opponents of Muammar Gaddafi, where an attempt open a humanitarian corridor.

The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Trinidad Jimenez, confirmed at the airbase of Torrejon de Ardoz the output of this plane to Benghazi, which is third with Spain sends humanitarian aid to the area. Early in the evening has come from the airbase of Torrejon de Ardoz the plane chartered by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation for an air corridor between the Tunisian island of Djerba near the Libyan border, and Cairo , which aims to evacuate about 4,000 refugees Egyptians.

The plane, a MD-82 chartered by the company Romanian Foreign Jet Air Tran, Spain sends five tons of humanitarian aid including medical supplies for primary care, orthopedics, pediatrics and obstetrics, as well as 900 blankets and forty tents. This aircraft, said the minister, moving to about 4,000 Egyptian refugees to their country in a week in three daily flights, "in response to the emergency call from the UN about the critical situation in the western border of Libya, where estimated that there are 75,000 displaced.

Jimenez has confirmed sending a third aircraft in the coming hours to the city of Benghazi in eastern Libya to open a humanitarian corridor in this area, one of the most affected by clashes between supporters and opponents of the leader Libyan Muammar Gaddafi. It is envisaged that this flight, whose plan does not specify foreign travel for security reasons, "arrives tomorrow to Benghazi with a new shipment of humanitarian aid, especially medications for chronic patients to be distributed in the area by international humanitarian organizations.

The Foreign Minister noted that Spain could expand the evacuation air corridor between Tunisia and Egypt. To this end, the Government is in constant contact with the countries of the European Union and the Tunisian and Egyptian authorities. In fact, the ambassadors in Spain, Tunisia, Mohamed Ridha Kecrid, and Egypt, Ayman Abdulsamie Zaineldine have gone to the Torrejon air base next to the Foreign Minister, who thanked the Spanish aid.

On the flight to Djerba travel further the director of the Spanish Agency for International Cooperation, Francisco Moza Zapatero, who will study in the field the possibility of extending aid to Tunisia with other media, and the repatriation to Egypt. "We will continue sending humanitarian aid because right now, Tunisia can not meet all the needs, not just on the side of the border with Tunisia, but we will try to open a humanitarian corridor for all people in Libya, on especially in the Benghazi area, "said the minister.

Spain responds well, said Jimenez, who have made requests both UNHCR and International Red Cross and in the Benghazi area, Doctors Without Borders. The minister recalled that Spain held its first shipment to Tunisia than 30 tons of humanitarian aid on Friday to meet the needs of ten thousand people from more than 75,000 who remain on the border with Libya.

The air base has also come Marisela Daniel, UNHCR representative in Spain, who underlined that the air passage open evacuation by Spain "comes less than 24 hours after" the organization of the UN refugee made an international appeal for help in dealing with refugees from the border between Tunisia and Libya.

"It's like a pond, have to go and have to leave, therefore, it is imperative to facilitate evacuations," said the UNHCR representative who added that it was "necessary to relieve congestion," because the situation was "quite desperate" for the 75,000 displaced people there.